Selective Electron Capture into Highly Charged Ions Studied by X-Rays and Auger Electrons

Abstract

The physics of highly charged ions moving with low velocity (as in a hot plasma) is of interest for both plasma diagnostics and for astrophysics as well as for a fundamental understanding of atomic interactions. We have produced slow, highly stripped, light ions (C, N, O, F and Ne) by bombardment of gas targets with heavy ions (Ar¹²⁺ to U⁴⁰⁺) and measured the decay of K-vacancy-containing configurations with high resolution, using a curved-crystal x-ray spectrometer and an electron spectrometer. A spectroscpic analysis of the spectra reveals intense lines from three electron configurations with a triplet KL core and an electron in a higher shell (typically n = 4, 5 or 6). Mann et al (1980) and Beyer et al (1980) have shown that these lines originate from capture of an electron from neutral gas molecules into metastable, slowly recoiling, highly charged light ions.